In Section 608 of Title IV of the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990, Congress called for the Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) to promulgate regulations regarding the use, recycling, and disposal of ozone-depleting substances. Included in these ozone-depleting substances are industrial process and commercial refrigeration systems. Pursuant to this statutory mandate, the EPA enacted a series of regulations, which are summarized in a document that it prepared in conjunction with the Chemical Manufacturers Association, entitled “Compliance Guidance for Industrial Process Refrigeration Leak Repair Regulations Under Section 608 of the Clean Air Act,” dated October 1995, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. A copy of this document is attached hereto as Attachment “A.”
Recently, the EPA has levied several significant fines for failure to comply with these Section 608 regulations regarding class I or class II refrigerants. Class I refrigerants are generally chlorofluorocarbon (“CFC”) refrigerants or any refrigerant mixture containing a CFC. Class II refrigerants are hydrochlorofluorocarbon (“HCFC”) refrigerants or any refrigerant mixture containing an HCFC. The regulations require, among other provisions, that owners or operators of commercial refrigeration systems track refrigerant leaks, repair the equipment using certified technicians, and retrofit or retire systems exceeding a certain leak threshold. The regulations also require an appropriate record keeping of these activities surrounding the refrigeration systems.
FIG. 1 is a flowchart illustrating the regulations 10 promulgated by the EPA relating to refrigerant loss in refrigeration systems. As shown in FIG. 1, the first step is to determine whether a particular refrigeration system or piece of refrigeration equipment is subject to the regulations (block 12). If so, the owner must track refrigerant loss in the system and calculate whether the amount of leakage crosses a predetermined action threshold (block 14). If the amount of loss exceeds the threshold, the owner must decide whether to repair, retrofit, or retire the refrigeration system (block 16). If the owner decides to repair the system, it must follow the repair requirements (block 18), and if the owner decides to retrofit or retire the system, it must follow those requirements (block 19). As shown in FIG. 1, both approaches present significant compliance requirements and challenges to the owner of the refrigeration system. These challenges are multiplied in the cases where the owner is a distributed enterprise having numerous refrigeration systems at distributed locations.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art for a system or method for tracking refrigerant loss in equipment subject to the EPA regulations and ensuring compliance with those regulations. There is a further need for a system for complying with the extensive requirements relating to repair, retrofit, or retirement of refrigeration systems.